With the Halifax Panthers and Leigh Centurions chosen for tomorrow night´s Premier Sports match, there were six Betfred Championship matches played on Sunday afternoon, and while two were blow-outs, one game saw the sides separated by two points and incredibly two games were draws.
Workington and Bradford met in the early kick off, with Barrow entertaining London and Whitehaven at home to the Sheffield Eagles as all three sides from Cumbria had home games. Batley took on the league leading Featherstone, Dewsbury were at home to Newcastle and York played Widnes.
Bradford won the early kick off comfortably after an early scare. Tindall opened the scoring before O´Brien got one back for the home side but tries from Murphy and Doyle before the interval win the game. Any lasting doubt was allayed on forty-five when Gill went in to make it 24-6 and even though Henderson got a second for Workington a late penalty goal from Patton saw the score end as 26-12 to the Bulls.
Featherstone dropped their first point of the season as they sensationally drew with the Batley Bulldogs. Johnson put the home side ahead, but Hardcastle equalised eight minutes later. The sides were locked up until three minutes before the interval when Carr scored for Batley for a 12-6 half time lead. Hardcastle got a second soon after the restart for 10-12 before Everett edged the Bulldogs further ahead to 18-10. A Hall try on the hour mark reduced the arrears to two points and a Jacks try with eight minutes remaining put Rovers into a two-point lead. A Hooley penalty goal on seventy-seven levelled the scores at 20-20, and that’s how it remained until the final hooter.
Barrow and London also drew, this time by 18-18. Two tries from Ritson put the Raiders into a 12-0 lead before tries from Gahan and Latu either side of half time reduce the lead to four points. Toal made it 18-8 and Barrow must have thought that they had the win but two tries in the last ten minutes, from Leyland and Walker got the Broncos to within two before Moceidreke kicked his first conversion of the game to tie things up on the final hooter.
Dewsbury and Newcastle had a right old tussle at the Tetley´s Stadium which saw the Thinder finally emerge as 24-22 victors. Gallagher and Nokes put Thunder 12-0 up before Graham got one back for the home side before an Eaves try just after the half hour gave Thunder an 18-4 lead at the break. Schofield and Nokes exchanged tries just after the interval before Gabriel and Ryder made it 22-24 with nine minutes remaining, but Thunder held on for the win.
York stunned the Widnes Vikings with a comprehensive win. Marsh put the City Knights ahead, but Lawton quickly responded for 6-6, but then it was all one-way scoring traffic. O´Hagan and Ward added two further York tries before the interval for 16-6, and Marsh, Stock and Edwards scored in the second half for a result of 32-6.
Whitehaven suffered a blow as they took a walloping at the hands of the Sheffield Eagles. Bishop had opened the scoring for Whitehaven with a penalty on two minutes and King added a try on six, but that was the last time that they would trouble the scorers. Laulu-Togagae, Farrell and Jones-Bishop all scored first half tries for 16-6 at the interval and it would only get worse for the home side. Welham, Chrimes (2), Laulu-Togagae and Thackeray all scored second half four pointers and with a total of six goals from Holmes it ended up 44-6.
We will bring you a full report after the final hooter tomorrow night.